GDPR-Compliant Time Tracking: What Employers Need to Know

Following recent EU and national court rulings, employers are now required to track their employees’ working hours. But how do you combine this obligation with the strict requirements of the GDPR? In this article, you’ll learn everything important.

The Double Challenge

Companies face two parallel requirements:

1. Time tracking obligation: Courts have ruled that employers must implement a system for recording working hours.

2. Data protection: The GDPR requires careful handling of personal data, and working hours are personal data.

What Data Can Be Collected?

Permissible Data

As part of time tracking, you may collect:

• Start and end of daily working hours
• Break times
• Overtime
• Project or client assignment (if operationally required)
• Location for mobile employees (with restrictions, see our guide on GPS tracking legality)

Impermissible Data

You may not collect:

• Detailed activity logs
• Private break content
• Performance measurements without objective reason
• Continuous location tracking

The 7 GDPR Principles in Time Tracking

1. Lawfulness

You need a legal basis for processing. For time tracking, this is:

• Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR (legal obligation)
• Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest)

2. Purpose Limitation

Collected time data may only be used for specified purposes:

• ✅ Payroll
• ✅ Proof for authorities
• ✅ Project billing
• ❌ Covert performance monitoring
• ❌ Creating personality profiles

3. Data Minimization

Only collect the truly necessary data. Ask yourself:

• Do I really need this information?
• Is there a less invasive alternative?
• Can I manage with less data?

4. Accuracy

The collected data must be correct. This means:

• Employees should be able to verify their times
• Corrections must be possible
• Incorrect data must be rectified

5. Storage Limitation

Data may only be stored as long as necessary (Art. 5(1)(e) GDPR). National law sets minimum periods for time and payroll records, but not for GPS data. Under German law, for example:

The periods for working time and the payroll account do not apply to the location where an employee clocked in. So set a period of your own for GPS data and write it into your record of processing activities, for example as long as a client can still dispute a service. In Crew Active, the GPS points stay stored with the recorded time of the job until that time is deleted or we delete your data after the contract ends. If a single time is deleted, a copy stays in an archive for 90 more days, so that a deletion by mistake can be undone; the deletion after the contract ends removes this archive too.

6. Integrity and Confidentiality

You must implement technical measures:

• Data encryption
• Access controls
• Secure passwords
• Regular backups

7. Accountability

You must be able to demonstrate compliance:

• Documented processes
• Processing register
• Data protection impact assessment (if necessary)

Practical Implementation

Create a Processing Register

Document your time tracking in the processing register:

Processing Activity: Time Tracking
Purpose: Fulfilling time tracking obligation, payroll
Categories of Data Subjects: Employees
Categories of Data: Working hours, break times, location points at clock events if applicable
Retention Periods (German law): working time records under § 16(2) ArbZG and
  § 17 MiLoG at least 2 years, payroll account until the end of the 6th calendar
  year after the last wage payment (§ 41 EStG), location points for a period
  of their own, set by purpose
Technical Measures: Encryption, access controls

Fulfill Information Obligations

Inform your employees according to Art. 13 GDPR about:

1. Controller: Who is responsible for data processing?
2. Purpose: Why is data collected?
3. Legal basis: On what grounds?
4. Recipients: Who receives the data?
5. Storage duration: How long is data stored?
6. Data subject rights: What rights do employees have?

Regulate Data Processing Agreements

Using external software? Then you need a Data Processing Agreement (DPA) with the provider. This regulates:

• Instruction dependency
• Technical measures
• Subcontractors
• Deletion after contract end

Checklist: Is Your Time Tracking GDPR-Compliant?

✅ Legal basis documented?

✅ Employees informed?

✅ Only necessary data collected?

✅ Access rights defined?

✅ Deletion periods established?

✅ Technical security ensured?

✅ DPA concluded with software provider?

✅ Processing register updated?

✅ Data subject rights ensured?

✅ Data protection officer involved?

Crew Active: GDPR Compliance Built-In

At Crew Active, we’ve considered data protection from the start:

Made for Europe

• Hosted in European data centres
• Built around the GDPR principles set out above. Whether your own processing is compliant depends on how you configure and use the system
• Support in multiple languages

European Purpose lists software from Europe and checks for each product where the company is legally established and where its data is stored. Its review of Crew Active covers our company in Regensburg, the EU hosting and the prices, and compares us with other European time tracking tools.

Privacy by Design

• Only necessary data is collected
• Deletion of your data on instruction and after contract end
• Granular access rights
• Encrypted data transmission, including our mobile app

Support for Your Documentation Duties

• Data Processing Agreement on request, at no extra cost
• Support with information obligations
• Export functions for data subject rights

Conclusion

GDPR-compliant time tracking is not rocket science, but it does require conscious action. With the right software and well-thought-out processes, you can fulfill both the tracking obligation and data protection requirements.

Try Crew Active: Time tracking that takes privacy seriously. 1 month free, risk-free.

Frequently Asked Questions